Tuesday, August 03, 2004

The mishna says: kasheh zivug k'krias yam suf / A successful match is as difficult as splitting the Red Sea.

Difficult, but for whom?

The Jews? All they did was enter the water and -poof!- it split.
For God? He created the word with an utterance. Why would splitting the Sea be difficult for Him?

The answer, I think, is that the Sea Splitting was difficult on the Egyptians. First, they all drowned. Not an easy day at the beach.

Second, the mishna says that the Jews had made it to dry land before the last Egyptian had entered the Sea. Because all the Egyptians died, we can deduce that the stragglers entered the Sea after the water came crashing down on their fellow soldiers. They saw their friends drowning, yet they went charging to their deaths in the churning and frothing Sea.